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By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association Northern California celebrated Sir Syed Day with an International Mushaira and a Benefit Dinner. The Sir Syed Day was held at the Indian Community Center in Milpitas, CA on September 19, 2015.
Chief Guest of the event was well-known poet and literary personality, Prof. Sahar Ansari. Particpating poets included Tahir Faraz, Rajesh Reddy and Sunil Kumar "Tang" from India. Ishrat Afreen and Perwaiz Jafri came from Houston. San Francisco Bay Area poets included Dr. Aifra Ahmed, Hamid Narvi and Ahmar Shehwaar. Another prominent Bay Area poet and President of Urdu Academy of North America, Tashie Zaheer, missed the mushaera because of serious illness.
Amtul Suhail was the MC of the program while poet Perwaiz Jafri from Houston conducted the mushaira.
The program began with the recitation of the Holy Quran followed by a report by Dr. Shaheer Khan, co-founder of the Association about its achievements in recent years. The Association was established in 1996 with the aim of providing assistance to the underprivileged communities in India for upgrading their educational standard and infrastructure at all levels.
A documentary was screened about the continuing work of the Association in Aligarh.
Dr. Shaheer Khan said that his organization believes in the kind of modern education that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, dreamed for Indian Muslims. Alluding to the huge problems the ordinary man in India is facing, Dr. Khan emphasized that his organization may not change the fate of all but surely it will be able to make difference in the life of many.
To forcefully illustrate his point, Dr. Shaheer Khan told the starfish story:
An old man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees a boy, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean. “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks. “Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.” “But don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.” The boy listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”
Shachindra Nath, president of the association, in his brief address appealed for support of this organization’s efforts.
The keynote speaker for the evening was Poet, critic, and scholar of Urdu literature and linguistics, Prof. Sahar Ansari who was bestowed Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in 2005 and Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2015 by the government of Pakistan.
Prof. Sahar Ansari spoke about the mission of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who was a great visionary. Sir Syed, who earned a reputation as a distinguished scholar, believed that the future of Muslims was threatened by the rigidity of their orthodox outlook. He opposed ignorance, superstitions and evil customs prevalent in the Muslim society. He firmly believed that the Muslim society would not progress without the acquisition of western education and science.
Hence he began promoting Western–style scientific education by founding modern schools and journals and organizing Muslim entrepreneurs. Towards this goal, Sir Syed founded the famous Anglo-Muhammadan Oriental College in 1875 which later became the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1920. The objective was to promoting social, scientific, and economic development of Indian Muslims.
Sir Syed wanted MAO College to act as a bridge between the old and the new, the East and the West. While he fully appreciated the need and urgency of imparting instruction based on Western learning, he was not oblivious of the value of oriental learning and wanted to preserve and transmit to posterity the rich legacy of the past. He, therefore, decided to keep a fine balance between the two. The College he founded was the visible embodiment of reason and progress.
Today, more than 117 years after Sir Syed’s death, Muslims lag behind in all walks of life. The main reason for their sorry status is their backwardness in modern education. Only the Vision of Sir Syed can help the Muslims to come out from the present situation. It is high time that we realize the message of Sir Syed and the spirit behind the Aligarh movement. Let us expand and propagate the Aligarh Movement for creating a modern society with a scientific outlook.
International Mushaira
A highlight of the gala was a mushaira, which saw the participation of poets from both India and Pakistan. The mushaira began with the renditions from the local poets which included Dr. Aifra Ahmed, Hamid Narvi and Ahmar Shehwaar.
Ishrat Afreen from Houston captivated the audience with her poetry. Perwaiz Jafri, MC for the mushaira also presented his poetry.
The mushaira was perhaps stolen by Rajesh Reddy from Bombay. His straightforward poetry touched the audience.
The poem of Tahir Faraz (from Bhopal) about “mother” drew wide applause.
Sunil Kumar "Tang" from Bihar thrilled the audience with his jokes and humorous poetry.
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